Articles Posted inInternet News

At the end of April, Facebook launched a new feature, its Send button, which will render the “email to a friend” button on most websites obsolete. The Send button is very similar to Facebook’s already popular Like button, which celebrated its first birthday recently and is installed on over 10,000 websites every week. However, this new Send button has a few differences from the Like button.

When a user clicks on the Send button, a pop-up box appears which allows them to send the page or article to a friend or group on Facebook or to any email address. A message can be added before sending the page or article to the friend’s Facebook inbox or the wall of the group. Facebook designed the button to make it easier for Facebook users to share content they like or find interesting with their close group of friends, with a focus on private sharing rather than public sharing.Continue reading

The Daily Beast reports that Facebook has been exposed in a scheme that sought to plant harmful stories about Google in the press, with the help of a public relations firm.

According to the article, Facebook hired Burson-Marsteller, a highly respected PR firm, to pitch stories to newspapers with an anti-Google angle and urged them to investigate allegations that Google was invading people’s privacy.

The PR firm went so far as to even offering to help a high-profile blogger write an op-ed bashing Google, promising it would place the op-ed in such outlets as The Huffington Post and The Washington Post. However, the blogger rejected the offer and posted the email exchange on the Internet, coinciding with a story from USA Today that accused the firm of a smear campaign against Google on behalf of an unnamed client. While people pointed fingers at Microsoft and Apple, The Daily Beast discovered it was Facebook.Continue reading

Mashable recently released the results of a poll conducted in February of marketers in the United States and found that the majority of marketers view social media as an integral part of their marketing strategy for 2011, with 70 percent planning to increase their social media budget and activity by over 10 percent this year.

Overwhelmingly, the primary focus of the marketer’s social media goals was to increase Facebook fans and “Likes.” A whopping 35 percent said gaining more Facebook fans to their business page was their main goal for 2011. In response to the smartphone explosion, the second goal at 22 percent was to increase their business’ presence on mobile devices. The poll also found that 87 percent of marketers believed social media was either important, or very important, to accomplishing their biggest marketing goal for 2011.Continue reading

On March 30, search engine giant Google announced the +1 button, which will soon appear in Google search results next to links. When a user clicks the button for a link, Google defines this action as a “public stamp of approval,” as it recommends the link to all of their Gmail contacts. A user’s name also becomes associated with the link “in search, on ads, and across the web,” according to Google. In order to use the product, a user must have a Google Profile. The addition of this new tool from Google is one reason why having a Google Profile is important.

Aside from the obvious fact that the +1 button is another way for Google to compete head-to-head with Facebook, the company’s official reason for the product is that it will make search results on Google more relevant. Jim Prosser, Google’s representative, said that people typically consult with their friends and other people regarding their decisions, so integrating what users recommend to their contacts is an easy way to make Google search results more useful.Continue reading

You’ve probably heard the stories of Facebook scams and fraud that have been circulating recently. While it’s important to be aware of these potential scams and acts of fraud through Facebook, there is no reason to delete your profile or fan page!

A recent article posted on Yahoo! highlights a few ways that some groups and individuals have been using Facebook to run scams. Over the past year, social networking sites such as Facebook have risen to fourth place from 17th for “most treacherous web terrain,” right behind sites for software-sharing, which most of us already know to avoid.Continue reading

On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey sent the very first tweet, which simply said, “inviting coworkers.” Now, five years later, the social media “microblogging” site has become an integral part of the world’s culture.

Considered to be an experiment in microblogging since it limits users to writing no more than 140 characters at a time (called “tweets”), Twitter asks a simple, yet vital question: “What’s happening?” And on an almost daily basis, its 200 million users respond, from luminaries in the technology field, to popular celebrities, to the president of the United States.Continue reading

The Internet is always evolving, which makes staying on top of your legal Internet marking game all the more important. If you have a web site that contains unique and useful content, the most recent Google algorithm update should work in your favor.

A New York Times article reports that Google has announced a significant change to its algorithm. The alteration is being made to help boost the rankings of high-quality web sites in Google search results and decrease the visibility of low-quality web sites. The update is said to be partially aimed at alleged content farms such as eHow and Answerbag. These sites create articles from popular search queries and put them on their sites to rise to the top of rankings and attract visitors. After receiving complaints from some users about allowing irrelevant and useless articles to garner high search results, Google decided it was time to update its algorithm.Continue reading

If you doubt the power and reach of social media, think again. The Washington Post reports that some potential buyers of Twitter have marked the social media site at being worth a staggering $8 to $10 billion. The question that has surfaced throughout the Internet is whether Google or Facebook will make Twitter offers to become its new owner. The article plays with potential new names for Twitter if either of these acquisition deals takes place: Goowit, Twoogle, Twitbook, and Facetwit. While these prospective names could use some work, there also may never be a chance for them to be used at all.

Twitter, Facebook, and Google have become the most dominant and widely used sites on the Internet. This is not to say that other competitors aren’t right behind them, but Google, Facebook, and Twitter serve many purposes for businesses and individuals all over the world. And while these sites often play off of each other and offer similar tools, they are also competitors striving to find ways to knock these sites out of the water.Continue reading

It is not too late to join in on The Daily Post, the challenge presented by WordPress for users to write and publish one blog post a day (or a week) throughout the course of 2011. Mashable notes that WordPress announced their challenge over the New Year holiday, catering, in a way, to the likelihood that various writers and bloggers have been looking for something to help keep them motivated to blog more frequently in the New Year.

The Daily Post is a guide that provides blog topic suggestions on a daily basis to help inspire, encourage, and even give advice in regard to blogging. It can be difficult to carve out the time to write for your blog, especially if you can barely find time in the day to eat! However, if that is your situation, it may be a good idea to explore resources to help you manage your time and workload. In any case, blogging on a daily basis may not be your cup of tea, but blogging at least once a week could be a great start towards boosting your business’ or law firm’s online presence by sharing your knowledge and helping spread your unique experiences.Continue reading

It would appear as though the competition between Google and Microsoft is not a thing of the past. It would also appear that one man is trying to inform the public about something worth knowing. USA Today reports that Google researcher Michal Zalewski has publically disclosed a fresh security flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser. This is the second time this has happened within four months. In September of last year, another Google researcher, Chris Evans, discovered a fresh Internet Explorer vulnerability and announced it publically before Microsoft could prepare what is called “a security patch.”

Apparently, over the weekend, Zalewski denied Microsoft’s request for him to postpone revealing the discovery until the company had time to launch a patch. Microsoft argues that Zalewski has heightened the chances of cyber criminals finding a way to abuse the browser flaw before a patch can be developed, tested, and circulated. While this claim has not been proven, Microsoft is attempting to find out if hackers could potentially take advantage of the flaw. No known attacks due to the flaw have been reported.Continue reading